COSTER

A fine late Georgian English dial clock with 14 inch, engraved and silvered brass dial and 8-day duration timepiece movement.

The mahogany case has a salt box tail and access doors to the right hand side and to the flat base. The finely turned concave mahogany dial surround is a perfect match with the Georgian concave brass bezel.

The engraved and silvered brass dial is written with Roman hour numerals, double minutes circle and outside five minutes. The maker’s signature, showing no Christian name and placed above and below the dial centre, is rather elegantly engraved in “zebra” capitals. The steel hands are well pierced and blued.

The 8-day timepiece movement has tapered plates, four pillars with a four wheel train and anchor escapement.

Overall Width: 17 in (43 cm)

Overall Height: 18 in (46 cm)

* James Coster is recorded on page 176 of Brian Loomes’ 'Clockmakers of the World' as working in Henley-on-Thames and Marlow, the former showing only circa 1800 while Loomes has 1798 to 1830 and suggests that he was a maker of both clocks and watches. A local source reports that Coster appears to have been the most prolific of the Henley-on-Thames clockmakers, predominantly in the field of dial clocks, although there are also one or two longcases bearing his name. A number of examples of his work are still in the Henley area and he seems also to have been a silversmith.